Friday, January 25

Nakuru Haven of Peace No More

Early this week, there was an article in the Business Daily to the effect that Nakuru town was eager to market itself as the "destination of choice" for those fleeing for their lives from the North Rift, especially those who had the potential to invest in the economy there. And, by all indications, there are a good number of potential investors among the displaced people who have taken refuge in Nakuru. Some according to the Business Daily article had already began to make enquiries about the possibility of purchasing property.

Now, it too seems to have succumbed to violence as angry youth seek to carry out revenge killings on account of "their people" being killed in Eldoret.

I know there's been a steady influx of displaced people into Nakuru and that therefore the residents of Nakuru are seeing and hearing firsthand accounts of the horrors that are taking place in the North Rift.

But, revenge is so not the answer, else soon we'll all be blind and then what future for all of us? And, to cliche on, two wrongs never made a right.

I hope the authorities in Nakure are diligent enough to take firm control of the situation before it deteriorates further, taking into custody anyone who is found to have participated in the planning or execution of this violence and charging them accordingly.

This madness must stop. Please stop the madness.

It seems as though every time we take a tiny step forward, we stumble and fall. I've been saying for some time now that we're in this for the longhaul. I'm only now beginning to grasp just how long the longhaul might be.

**UPDATE (21.45pm GMT +3)Rival mobs representing both sides of the political divide are now holding Nakuru hostage. In fact, as the story is shaping up, the violence is about a violent clash of two rival groups.Are Mungiki partly responsible for what has happened? I read them in the subtext.Hopefully the army is able to isolate the perpertrators of the violence, whoever they might be and wherever they might be and clamp down on them forcefully before they wreak any more havoc.

My family is stuck in the middle of Rift Valley and from what they have told me this is what I have gathered:The Kalenjin are basically on a mission to reclaim the Rift Valley and so are trying to displace as many Kikuyus as they can. Our government has dispatched GSU and is paying the Mungiki to fight back in the Rift Valley. Apparently this is the driver of majority of the violence right now.